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Highrises not wanted on Okanagan lakefront

Having been away for Christmas we arrived back to read Jennifer Smith’s curious headline “Don’t Bus Us Again,” referring to a city survey guaging response to the Milroy development scheme.

Yes, the public wants city council to get on with the downtown development, but I can’t believe that there is anywhere near a majority who favour 40-storey highrises or indeed any highrises on the Okanagan lakefront.

Who conducted the survey? And who paid for it?

Why has city council not prepared its own vision for this area of downtown development rather than leave it to a developer who is bound to propose a scheme which will be most financially beneficial to him?

Any development of highrises must be restricted to areas substantially away from the lake. The citizens of Kelowna demand nothing less.

In this, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, any developer who has the good fortune to be given a contract with our city to build a residential and commercial development, complete with parkland and waterfront walkways, will no doubt be handsomely rewarded for his ingenuity, without the necessity of constructing highrises on our waterfront. Indeed, such an enterprising developer should be expected to provided some low cost housing for those residential units on the lower floors which would not be accessible to a view.

Speak up Kelowna. Phone, e-mail or send letters to city council or write letters to the editor with one singular message…We do not want highrises on our waterfront.

Walley Lightbody,

Kelowna

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